After a crazy week full of deadlines, today is feeling more relaxed. I ran across the street this morning early and picked out my first birthday flowers (Thank you, Tim). My mother in law gave me “The Art of Floral Arranging” by Elieen Johnson for Christmas, which I’d asked for since I’ve always felt like I was missing something critical about arranging flowers. One helpful tip from Johson’s book is to “tie” the arrangement with clear hair elastics (from Goody’s, available at any CVS/Duane Reade/drugstore).

It holds the arrangement together in a nice way, right?

UPDATE: I spent the morning catching up on magazine reading (yum) and was shocked to learn via Martha Stewart Living that if you mix daffodils in with other cut flowers, the sap of the daffodils will “poison” the other flowers and cause them to wilt. Given that I just made a bouquet with lots of daffodils, I double timed it across the room and pulled them out. Filed in: flower facts.

Chairs are everywhere these days (here and here). How excellent is this chair wallpaper from Deborah Bowness?

And, how radical is this “bookshelf” wallpaper, also from Deborah?

Where’s my scouting eye these days? Vintage prints and children’s stationary.

Two vintage egg prints…

And some cute as a button vintage children’s stationary.

I saw this photo on Apartment Therapy (Jill’s in Copenhagen, lucky duck) and just realized that the dry skin, chapped lips, pasty skin, vitamin D deficiency WILL come to an end. Well, hallaullah!

Thanks, AT, for the hope.

Back in September I blogged about our entry way, and that it was in dire need of some attention. Well, give a girl six months…. I love where we ended up:

What did we change? Not too much, but just enough. Recycling and a place to hang coats and put umbrellas were the most critical needs. The coat rack is from Urban Outfitters ($68), the umbrella stand is via ebay ($40) [similar one on ebay here] and the console is the old west elm desk from the original picture, but turned around. After looking at more recycling containers than I can image, I finally picked up two discarded wine crates from in front of the fancy wine store three blocks away. I love that they are a non-plastic “recycled” place to put the recycling. If I even get around to decoupaging anything, I may decoupage them with some of the Marta Stewart faux bois wrapping paper I bought at Micheal’s for $1 a roll in N.C over Christmas. You’ve got to give a girl her dreams.

I can’t take any credit for turning around the console, that was 100% Tim’s genius. I actually think it works, and doesn’t seem to “Design on a Dime.” The bamboo is a gift from all my former co-workers, and used to grace my office. I’m glad its found such a lovely home in my entry way. Let’s see, what else? The brass letter holder is intended for sale in my Etsy shop but it’s resting in our home for awhile (occupational hazard). The lovely shaker inspired tray was a wedding gift.

I just found this snippet from Lucky Magazine in my scanner — I was planning on posting about it months ago. I’ve noticed that I’m drawn to letters and numbers recently. I like this collection for its funky combo of the two!

A friend sent me this post from AT:New York and wondered how she might recreate it for herself. As a lover of multiples, I’m not opposed to this, although I think they might be nicer as a photowall (i’m like dog with a bone). Or, maybe I wouldn’t mind this if they weren’t mirrors? Maybe if they were photos? Or found things (like old polarids or letters or something). I spied these frames on Ebay (currently $9.99 but act quickly, the action ends at 11am Tuesday morning! that sold for a mere $11 dollars!) and thought maybe with a glue fun she should have a go at it. Or, someone else should grab them up for a photowall of their own.